We Are Going To Hit Iran. Bigtime

I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) She told me we are going to attack Iran.

I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) She told me we are going to attack Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that all the targets have been chosen, prioritized, and tasked to specific aircraft, bases, carriers, missile cruisers and so forth.

I asked her why she is telling me this.

Her answer was really amazing.

Maccabee's diary

She started in the Marines and after 8 years her term was up. She had served on a smaller Marine carrier, and found out through a friend knew there was an opening for a junior grade LSO in a training position on a supercarrier. She used the reference and the information and applied for a transfer to the United States Navy. Since she had experience landing F-18Cs and Cobra Gunships, and an unblemished combat record, she was ratcheted into the job, successfully changing from the Marines to the Navy. Her role is still aligned with the Marines since she generally is assigned to liason with the Marine units deploying off her carrier group.

Like most Marines and former Marines, she is largely apolitical. The fact is, most Marines are trigger pullers and most trigger pullers could care less who the President is. They simply want to be the tip of the sword when it comes to defending the country. She voted once in her life and otherwise was always in some forward post on the water during election season.

Something is wrong with the Navy and the Marines in her view. Always ready to go in harms way, Marines rarely ever question unless it’s a matter of tactics or honor. But something seems awry. Junior and senior officers are starting to grumble, roll their eyes in the hallways. The strain of deployments is beginning to hit every jot and tittle of the Marines and it’s beginning to seep into the daily conversation of Marines and Naval officers in command decision.

"I know this will sound crazy coming from a Naval officer", she said. "But we’re all just waiting for this administration to end. Things that happen at the senior officer level seem more and more to happen outside of the purview of XOs and other officers who typically have a say-so in daily combat and flight operations. Today, orders just come down from the mountaintop and there’s no questioning. In fact, there is no discussing it. I have seen more than one senior commander disappear and then three weeks later we find out that he has been replaced. That’s really weird. It’s also really weird because everyone who has disappeared has questioned whether or not we should be staging a massive attack on Iran."

"We’re not stupid. Most of the members of the fleet read well enough to know what is going on world-wise. We also realize that anyone who has any doubts is in danger of having a long military career yanked out from under them. Keep in mind that most of the people I serve with are happy to be a part of the global war on terror. It’s just that the touch points are what we see since we are the ones out here who are supposedly implementing this grand strategy. But when you liason with administration officials who don’t know that Iranians don’t speak Arabic and have no idea what Iranians live like, then you start having second thoughts about whether these Administration officials are even competent."

I asked her about the attack, how limited and so forth.

"I don’t think it’s limited at all. We are shipping in and assigning every damn Tomahawk we have in inventory. I think this is going to be massive and sudden, like thousands of targets. I believe that no American will know when it happens until after it happens. And whatever the consequences, whatever the consequences, they will have to be lived with. I am sure if my father knew I was telling someone in a news organization that we were about to launch a supposedly secret attack that it would be treason. But something inside me tells me to tell it anyway."

I asked her why she was suddenly so cynical.

"I have become cynical only recently. I also don’t believe anyone will be able to stop this. Bush has become something of an Emperor. He will give the command, and cruise missiles will fly and aircraft will fly and people will die, and yet few of us here are really able to cobble together a great explanation of why this is a good idea. Of course many of us can give you the 4H Club lecture on democracy in the Mid East. But if you asked any of the flight officers whether they have a clear idea of what the goal of this strike is, your answer would sound like something out of a think tank policy paper. But it’s not like Kosovo or when we relieved the tsunami victims. There everyone could tell you in a sentence what we were here doing."

"That’s what’s missing. A real sense of purpose. What’s missing is the answer to what the hell are we doing out here threatening this country with all this power? Last night in the galley, an ensign asked what right do we have to tell a sovereign nation that they can’t build a nuke. I mean the table got EF Hutton quiet. Not so much because the man was asking a question that was off culture. But that he was asking a good question. In fact, the discussion actually followed afterwards topside where someone in our group had to smoke a cigarette. The discussion was intelligent but also in lowered voices. It’s like we aren’t allowed to ask the questions that we always ask before combat. It’s almost as if the average seaman or soldier is doing all the policy work."

She had to hang up. She left by telling me that she believes the attack is a done deal. "It’s only a matter of time before their orders come and they will be sent to station and told to go to Red Alert. She said they were already practicing traps, FARP and FAST." (Trapping is the act of catching the tension wires when landing on the carrier, FARP is Fleet Air Combat Maneuvering Readiness Program- practice dogfighting- and FAST is Fleet Air Superiority Training).

She seemed lost. The first time in my life I have ever heard her sound off rhythm, or unsure of why she is doing something. She knows that there is something rotten in the Naval Command and she, like many of her associates are just hoping that the election brings in someone new, some new situation, or something.

"Yes. We're gong to hit Iran, bigtime. Whatever political discussion that are going in is window dressing and perhaps even a red herring. I see what's going on below deck here in the hangars and weapons bays. And I have a sick feeling about how it's all going to turn out."

"I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) "

I don't think attacking Iran is the right thing to do but I do have to say something about this article and the author:

"I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) "

I don't think attacking Iran is the right thing to do but I do have to say something about this article and the author:

How many aircraft carriers do you think are in the Gulf of Hormuz, really? It won't be hard for Navy brass to make a list of all the female Landing Signal Officers that happen to be onboard aircraft carriers in that part of the world. So the author had better keep his fingers crossed, because he might have just gotten his female friend a lifetime in prison.

I wasn't aware that one could just transfer from the Corps to the Navy. I also never new that the Corps had their own carriers. I also never knew you could land an F/A-18 on a LHA. This article is bullshit, whether it comes from the mind of the author or his "friend" is feeding him bullshit. I suspect the former.

BRAVO! To me, it's common-sense. Lack of leadership. When the ranks question the purpose, they're looking around for sensible leadership alternatives to follow because of a lack of TRUST. If Bush were to say to the higher-echelon, and to trust the subordinates, unlike nixon/kissinger/rove-style, "there's going to be an internal coup de tat on xx yy ," folks would be okay with that and execute the ... show more

BRAVO! To me, it's common-sense. Lack of leadership. When the ranks question the purpose, they're looking around for sensible leadership alternatives to follow because of a lack of TRUST. If Bush were to say to the higher-echelon, and to trust the subordinates, unlike nixon/kissinger/rove-style, "there's going to be an internal coup de tat on xx yy ," folks would be okay with that and execute the mission, but that's not the M.O. Censorship and secrecy are only needed where there is a lack of substance (or loose lips), *cough* Putin. However, the basis for all forms of organized government requires state secrets and increasing military technology; sorry Chomsky, you're an unarmed messiah who wouldn't last three wink-winks in politics. Any time I can work a Guns, Germs and Steel socio/anthro hypothesis is a good day.

Now then, speaking up *IS* leadership, doing something different from the rest of the heard, regardless of the consequences, a-la Sir Thomas More, for the truth defends itself, along with media exposure and a good lawyer.

We have the responsibility to be leaders ourselves: painting symbols with broad strokes, blaming and superlative opinions are meaningless hot-air, let's stick to coming up with solutions. Not everyone has solutions, but that's okay... knowing there's a possible problem is a start, it's getting past knee-jerk ad-hominems that are not productive. We picked and elected this idiot (wink-wink), we have to live with him, unless we wish to hold a special election. Obama seems like the antithesis, so far.

Americans could use a dose of taking one of JFK's best-known quotes to heart. The greater good as a personal responsibility for all of us. I'm off to donate some blood and throw my name on some volunteer websites.

Thanks for reading this long tome.

PS: Attacking Iran might or might not be useful. I'll have to ask my Persian friends, but they definitely DONT like the regime, that's why they're here. To have legitimacy though, any leadership and initiative must come from within, unlike Iraq. [Jefferson quote here.] The US doesnt need to police the world, the world needs to learn to work together to police together. If others were to step up and help, and America to back down a little, this is okay.

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